is it wrong
by shystoryteller
Summary: fiction of my own creation, just a story that popped into my head about a young couple who are madly in love, but big things stand in their way - can they overcome them?
1. Chapter 1

_A/N, well hi guys new here! i must admit that i do get stories popping into my head every now and again but have never writen one down, much less actually published it for other people to see! please let me know what you all think, there is more to come but i'm a bit busy looking after a 4 year old pony whilst it's being sold so may not be for a few days. i'm also putting a plea for a beta reader! if you can help please contact me! thanks_

_SST_

Prologue

He drove onto the yard and parked his car, pausing for a moment he looked around the yard then, undid his seatbelt and got out of the car. He stretched his long legs out, it had been a long drive and it was cramped with his seat pulled forward owing to the amount of stuff in the back.

Seeing the car pull in Alianna put her mucking out tools in her wheelbarrow, pulled it out of the stable and bolted the door behind her. She walked over to the car where a tall dark haired young man was standing, and, smiling, introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Ali, my mum's the yard owner, are you the new livery?"

"Yes" he replied, looking back at the road "I'm just waiting for the lorry to arrive, sorry, I'm Domonic by the way, but just call me Dom.".

"Nice to meet you, do you know where your tack room is?", then when he shook his head, she grabbed an armful of rugs out of the car, said "follow me" chatting away as she turned and walked off.

By the time they had unloaded the car the box had arrived, and an alert looking grey horse stood in the yard taking in his surroundings. Dom walked ahead to talk to the driver whilst Ali went to meet the horse, he was an attractive Irish Draught gelding, about 16.2h with a kind eye and Ali liked him instantly, he seemed the sort who took everything in his stride.

"His name's Seamus" came a voice in her ear making her jump, she twisted her head to look up at Dom who was standing close behind her.

He was surprised at how tall she was, at 5'11 he was not short and her head came up to his chin. At this angle it was hard to fail to notice her deep red hair or her dark blue eyes when she turned to look back at him. For a moment they froze, staring into each others eyes, their faces scant inches apart, then abruptly he took a step back and took the horse from the groom and turned to lead him away as a voice came from behind them calling Alianna in for dinner. As she walked towards the house Dom called after her

"how old are you Ali?"

"twelve" she replied, smiling as she closed the door behind her.

As they sat eating, Ali asked her mum about the new livery.

"Oh he's a nice lad, just finished school and has moved into the teachers training college down the road, hence why he's here as we're the closest yard. Says he's going to be a geography teacher, shame he's not a science teacher or he could tutor you! Which reminds me, Mrs Gimble will be late tomorrow so you'll have to do the horses in the morning before she comes.". Ali shrugged ascent and the pair chatted amicably for the rest of the meal.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1.

Four years had passed and over that time Dom and Ali had become close friends. Dom was finishing his teachers training and has just accepted a job teaching geography at the local comprehensive, and Ali has just been crowned the UK Junior Eventing champion. She now had 4 horses, Calitri's Eclipse, her 14 year old Anglo Arab stallion she'd had for three years and her main competition horse, Shadow Dancer, a 5 year old Oldenburg mare currently competing at novice level, Calitri's Kestrel, a 3 year Hanovarian mare who she had just backed and Desert Storm a 12 year old Akhal Teke stallion who she had bought as a second competition horse. Dom and Seamus had been successfully competing with the college team.

One May morning Ali was in the school on Eclipse, where a large intricate show jumping course had been set up, she had a big competition at the weekend and was getting a last session's practice in before they left. They would be away for 4 days as she wanted to arrive early so Eclipse would settle before the big day. Her mind was so preoccupied she didn't realise they striding was all wrong coming into the double, by the time she noticed it was too late and all she could was hold on and hope Eclipse could recover. He didn't. The horses front feet collapsed and the floor rushed up to meet Ali, her feet were stuck in the stirrups so she was crushed helplessly as the horse rolled over her, letting out a cry as the horse trampled her whilst scrambling to get to his feet and walking off. She was vaguely aware of a shout coming from the yard and the sound of a horse been hurriedly put back in his stable before all sound faded out and her vision briefly went dark. When it returned she could hear her name being called, Dom was leaning over her, staring worriedly into her eyes,

"Ali! Are you ok? You frightened the life out of me!"

he held her close briefly and then let her go. She took a deep breath, smiled, pulled his head down and kissed him.

Dom froze his mind whirling, the small rational part of his mind screaming that she was too young for him and what was he doing kissing her like he never wanted to stop, was quickly overshadowed by the feel of her fingers caressing the back of his neck and his waist, her soft lips on his and the heat of her breath mingling with his own. He deepened the kiss and moaned slightly as her lips parted then jumped back suddenly as Maria, Ali's mother, threw herself onto her knee's beside her daughter,

"Ali -"

"I'm fine mum, my heads spinning a bit though, I assume I'll hear sirens any time now?".

She smiled again at her mothers sheepish grin and looked back at Dom, caressing his hip as she did so.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

As Ali lay in the hospital bed she was finding it hard to concentrate on what her parents were saying to her. Every few seconds she looked up and scanned the window into the corridor looking for him, it had been three days since the accident, why hadn't he come yet? She sighed and looked back at her parents, smiling at them

"I'm all right mum really, just tired that's all, you've had enough concussions to know how my head is right now" she answered wryly in response to her mother's question. Then looking back at the window she froze. He stood in the corridor with his shoulders bowed, shuffling anxiously, then he looked up and caught Ali's gaze. Her mother saw where she was looking, and with a conspiratorial smile at her daughter, shepherded her husband out of the room on the pretext of letting Ali rest. As they were leaving Dom entered the room and sat in one of the chairs that had just been vacated.

" I just came to see how you are..." he began quietly

"Dom stop acting like you're walking on eggshells round me, at least lets talk about what happens now. I know how you feel about me, you made that very clear when you kissed me back like that, and I thought it should be obvious how I feel about you" she smiled briefly at him at the last comment.

"Ali you're 16 years old, and I'm a teacher!" he exclaimed "For Christ's sake I'll be teaching people your age in a couple of months - "

" - and you've said often enough that you wish they were as mature as me," she retorted " stop looking at me as a 16 year old school-girl because I am not one, you've seen enough people be surprised when they find out how old I am.".

She sighed seeing his mind was clouding his judgement, after a few minutes had passed in silence she spoke again.

"Is it really that bad to be in love with me? You know my parents think the world of you and would be happy for us, the school never need to know, why can't you let yourself go?"

he looked back at her with eyes full of conflicting emotions,

" I can't talk about this right now" and with that he got up and walked to the door, he paused, "i'm glad you're ok" and with that he was gone.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3.

He had no idea how he got home, the empty feeling that had started in his stomach when he left the hospital had spread, by the time he walked through his front door he felt numb. He walked to the kitchen cupboard and pulled out a bottle of scotch and a tumbler, then he walked over to he couch and collapsed upon it. He poured himself a drink but didn't drink it, instead he stared into the ambler liquid as his mind replayed the conversation he'd just had at the hospital. The look in her eyes as he walked in, as if everything would be all right just because he was there. The way her face fell at his outburst. The pain in her eyes as she asked if it was so bad to be in love with her. He had nearly broken then and begged her to be his forever but that small part of his mind wouldn't let him so he had left.

He loved her so much it hurt, those times that he was reminded of her age he was always surprised – travelling all over Europe competing had given her the level of maturity of a women in her early 20's. The way she played down her skill as a horsewoman when she was at home, being the same person she always was. She was one of the most popular people on the junior circuit with trainers, judges and competitors alike -

"but she's 16!!" he exclaimed out loud, "she's still a child, and I'm a teacher! This is wrong, I shouldn't be feeling like this..." he trailed off as the memory of the kiss came unbidden to his mind, he swore and downed his drink, poured himself another and downed that too. He spent the night brooding in silence.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4.

Something went out of Ali that day. A few days after she had seen Dom the hospital had released her, her concussion was lessening and she hadn't broken anything so they had told her to go home and rest. But her mind constantly kept wandering back to him, it didn't help that he made an effort to avoid her whenever he was at the yard. That small gesture devastating her and driving her further inside herself.

When she was well enough to do her horses she thanked her lucky stars that her yard and arena was apart from the main yard so she could spend hours there away from everyone else doing what she loved best. But even that wasn't enough to keep her from thinking of him, she spent hours out on hacks with Kestrel reliving the memories of the feel of his short dark hair, or the trace of stubble on his chin, or his already dark eyes becoming almost black when she kissed him. She spent hours schooling the others on auto-pilot wondering how she could make him understand that there was nothing wrong with them being together, but she knew it was to no avail, he could not get past her age and his profession.

She wondered how she was still managing to get placed at almost every competition she went to. The junior Chef d'Euip was no fool however, he could see the desperation in her riding, yes she may be shaving seconds off her time in jump-off's but only because there was a new recklessness in her, like she didn't care what happened to her any more. He was worried about her and mentioned it to Maria.

Maria was was worried too, and growing more so as the weeks went on. She could see how unhappy the young pair were and she was at a loss as to what to do about it. She had spoken to Dom on numerous occasions but he had just clammed up and disappeared and Ali didn't say much about anything these days. Finally after spending yet another meal with nothing but one word answers from Ali she had had enough. She had to do something to get the two of them to talk to each other, to see what they were doing to each other. She spent the rest of dinner plotting and decided that a simple idea was the best one.

The next day she found Dom in the yard and asked him into the office which was in the annexe off the main house, she knew Ali was in the office and had purposely locked the internal door behind her. She ushered Dom in in front of her and closed the door firmly behind her.

"Now, you two it's about time you sat down and had a conversation about things. You've danced around each other for too long now, can't you see what you are doing to each other? Dom you've let that fabulous horse of yours go because your heart isn't in it any more and as for you Ali, coach Saunders thinks you're trying to kill yourself with the way you've been riding over the last few months. You're either going to break yourself or your horse or both. So I am not letting you out of here before you've talked things over." and with that she left.

The silence in the room became deafening and the tension unbearable within minutes. Ali swore and strode across the room towards him, she stopped half a foot away from him and glared at him.

"Dom, I have spent the last 5 months letting you drive me out of my mind and I'll be damned if I'll spend another 5 months doing so. I can't see anyway to convince you that there is nothing wrong with us being together but I still love you, I can't help it. I try and stop but all I can think of is you," she stopped suddenly, turned and walked away from him towards the window, leaning on the window sill.

"you know it's funny, I've spent the last 6 months convincing myself that all hell would break loose if I let myself fall for you before realising it's too damn late." he said with a wry grin "besides Martin gave me a kick up the ass and told me what an idiot I was being. You're so beautiful, and fearless, I'd watch every competition you went to unable to take my eyes away from you. I wanted to tell the whole show-ground that you were my girl and then I kept thinking that I had blown it that day at the hospital." he swore " Dammit Ali, I don't know what to do any more, I feel like everybody will think it's wrong for me to be with you, I feel like the parents at the school will lynch me if they think I have a thing for 16 year old girls, I feel like I should be struck off for feeling this way. I also feel like I can't be apart from you for a single second without breaking into a thousand pieces.".

She smiled briefly at his last comment then turned to face him,

"Dom only you can make piece with yourself over this, you know as well as I do that my parents adore you, Mum made that very clear today! And I also don't think that you are attracted to 16 year old school girls as a rule, but then i'm not your average 16 year old " this last comment was meant in jest, but as his serious expression never wavered she carried on. "All I can tell you is I love you and I am willing to do whatever you want. Whether that be trying to make a go of things now or waiting until I am 18, although I think I would find it very hard to wait. Just being in this room with you is more than I can stand..." she trailed off.

Dom felt the same, he could barely think straight with her standing so close, he reached out and ran his hand lightly down her arm, feeling the goosebumps which had formed at his touch. She shivered and caught his hand as he dropped it to her side, pulling him into an embrace. Pulling back slightly and looking up at him she asked

"so what happens now?".

"i don't know Ali, these last few months have been so hard, seeing you round the yard and not having the courage to come and talk to you. Seeing you unhappy and knowing it was me that caused it. I can't stop loving you and I can't stop wanting to be with you, but I can't stop thinking that it is wrong somehow."

"that's not an answer Dom, you can't leave me hanging like this, I need to know where we stand. Maybe you should talk it through with Martin, see what he says?".

He nodded in agreement and turned to leave, as he walked out the door he heard her sigh. He knew how she felt, like nothing had changed even though they had just had their first proper conversation since that day at the hospital. He abruptly changed his direction, walked back through the door, straight up to Ali and kissed her.

Instantly the world faded away and all she could concentrate on was his lips on hers, his hands on the small of her back and his toned muscular torso under her own hands. She ran her hands up his chest and over his shoulders before letting them slide slowly down his back pulling him closer as she did so. He pushed her back against the wall and leant into her, hooking his leg through hers he pushed her legs apart so there was no gap between their bodies. Running his hand down her side, over her hips and back up her thighs he deepened the kiss letting her know exactly how she felt without uttering a single word. After a few moments he pulled away and looked down at her

"i think I just figured out what i'm going to do. I can't not be with you, I want to make a go of things. I..." he trailed off suddenly unsure of what to say.

"lets take things very slowly eh? There is all the time in the world for us." and, smiling, she kissed him again, a sweet chaste kiss that robbed him of the ability to think, he could only feel.


End file.
